The Ultimate NXT Draft Review: 1-10

In June of 2016, so now nearly two and a half years ago, Lukewarm Jonah and I got together to do both a WWE main roster and NXT Fantasy Draft. There isn’t a ton of analysis to do with the main roster, but despite me having the Universal Champion, Brock Lesnar, and the greatest wrestler in the world, Shane McMahon, I’d probably give the edge to Jonah on those picks.

But I would like to focus on the NXT roster as the transition from NXT to the main roster or just the progression within NXT provides some fascinating talking points. Although we did a fairly good job, there were definitely some big time misses and some amazing steals. Let’s break it down pick-by-pick, starting with the top 10 today.

1. Jonah selects Finn Balor

Joe: This was an obvious first overall pick. The guy was the NXT Champion, and The Demon was the most undeniably awesome thing in all of WWE. Although WWE is definitely over their big guys must reign mentality, little guys do often get left behind. His shoulder injury happened at the worst possible time, and it’s really destroyed his standing in the company. Without that injury, he could have had a very different run, but now he’s kind of stuck in the midcard with no aim. Hopefully, Royal Rumble turns things around as in, turns him into the leader of an evil group of wrestlers from New Japan called the Missile Gang.

Jonah: Finn is still probably the number one pick in a redraft.  The crowd still absolutely loves him after years of terrible booking, so one of these days he’s going to get another run.  He’s the first Universal Champion, and he’s really in the upper midcard. He’s on the verge of breaking out again and I hear there’s a bunch of sweet wrestlers coming from ROH.

2-3. Joe selects Shinsuke Nakamura and Bayley

Jonah: These picks made me very angry at the time because I really wanted both of them.  But now it’s really turned into who has been booked worse on the main roster? Bayley has won the world title, but had a terrible reign and has been booked as an afterthought for basically her entire time.  Nakamura recently won his first and only title on the main roster the US title, but he won the Royal Rumble and even though he lost 600 or so of his first title shots, he still feels like kind of a threat. The biggest shock about Nakamura is that he hasn’t had very good matches.  At the time of our draft he had just torn the house down with Sami Zayn in NXT, now he puts on average matches with AJ Styles and bad matches with a lot of other people. He’s still oozing with charisma and cool as hell, but his matches are very concerning. Bayley could still be one of the most popular performers on the roster.  When she turned on Sasha for that week, the pop was insane. She’s Becky Lynch on RAW, one moment and the crowd will blow the roof off the house. Still very good picks, but in a redraft, I don’t know about them going two and three, I think they fall a round or two.

Joe: Shit, man. I drafted Bayley, and I’m not even that high on her. Her only really memorable matches happened against Sasha Banks, and this was probably at the height of her popularity. Nowadays, I’m not even sure if she makes my top five women from this draft. She still has a ton of potential, but I have trouble seeing a pathway to her actually reaching it.

As for Nakamura, the charisma is through the roof, but anytime he starts to develop an interesting character, the WWE writers take over, and they have him show Rusev naked and call him a girl. That’s....not great. But Nakamura has also seemed disinterested during a lot of his WWE run, but who could blame him? The WWE had the chance to pull the trigger on him but chose not to, and although he’s still a top guy, he’s probably not going to be THE guy. That being said, he still might be a top three pick if we did the draft again.

4-5. Jonah selects Samoa Joe and Asuka

Joe: Hey, Asuka is finally getting the push she should have gotten a long time ago. Good lord, remember when she couldn’t handle when someone cosplayed as her and lost to Carmella a bunch of times. But no, she’s awesome, and I would totally take her over Bayley.

Samoa Joe has almost done cool stuff, but everything he does just seems to drag on forever and lead nowhere. It’s still exciting when he starts something new as he’s excellent at getting things off to a hot start, but it all just goes nowhere. That being said, this is still a good pick as I can’t see him falling out of the top ten even with a disappointing run on the main roster.

Jonah: I still love these two picks.  Joe is still super over, even though he loses all of his big matches just like Nakamura.  The difference is Joe can go in the ring and cuts an insane promo. They booked themselves into a corner with Asuka’s undefeated streak, then ended it at the worst time, then booked her like crap for a year.  Despite that, people still love Asuka and she’s great in the ring. She’s also got the Nakamura charisma where she’s cool as hell so it doesn’t matter what she says.

Joe: Jonah, your definition of super over is far different than anything existing in reality. Super over guys in WWE are Braun Strowman, Becky Lynch, and Ronda Rousey. If I stretch the definition, it could include Seth Rollins, Rusev, Daniel Bryan, and New Day. Joe is at least two tiers away from that.

Jonah: Joe can realistically be put into the World Title scene at any time and it makes sense, that’s being over.  He’s great on the mic and in the ring. Someday he will be used correctly and get super duper over.

Joe: Getting in the World Title scene at any time, huh? So like Jinder Mahal? I get it.

6-7. Joe selects American Alpha

Jonah: I got fired up writing about how bad the booking of Bayley and Nakamura was but American Alpha was much worse.  They are the best tag team the WWE has had since the Hardy Boys. Naturally, the WWE booked them super boring. They won the titles, but the crowd eventually turned on them because they did nothing but wrestle awesome, which is cool but the WWE forgot that they were charismatic as hell in NXT.  For some reason American Alpha got broken up, Jason Jordan became Kurt Angle’s kid, and Gable is still killing it and is now in another boring tag team. Keep them together and Jordan never gets injured,and American Alpha is dominating the tag team division right now. Another couple of picks that drop in a redraft, I mean I’m not sure if Jordan ever wrestles again, but Gable does have a ton of potential.  Great pick at the time, ruined now by bad booking and injuries.

Joe: I love Chad Gable, because he made piss pants jokes to Drake Maverick, and that makes him cool and not a horribly depressing babyface. I still don’t mind the pick as Jason Jordan just needs to get healthy to be decent, and Chad Gable’s ceiling is still incredibly high. I honestly think that Chad Gable may be the guy I would most want to see in NJPW, and that is why I have no regrets about the pick, because when they actually let him go, he’s still fantastic.

8-9. Jonah selects Hideo Itami and Austin Aries

Joe: LOL, well this didn’t work out as planned for you, Jonah. I was never high on Aries, but I didn’t see it ending that quickly. Hideo Itami is super fun in person, but I don’t think his style when put through the WWE incubator ever really translated on television. I think he might be injured, or he might be active on 205 Live; there’s really no difference. I like Itami, but we’re at the point where any good idea for a Japanese wrestler would go to Asuka or Nakamura, meaning they would need THREE good ideas for Japanese wrestlers for Itami to do something interesting. Can FOUR McMahons come up with three foreign ideas? Spoiler alert: The answer is no.

Jonah: Yeah this one hurts to look back on.  Aries at least put on a year of good matches on 205 Live, his match with Neville at Wrestlemania 33 was the best match on the card.  I didn’t see Aries bailing so quickly, but that’s kind of what he does. Itami is still active on 205 Live, but it’s baffling how they’ve used him.  Remember back when Enzo was the douche king of the WWE and Cruiserweight champ? No one could challenge him for the title because no one could refrain from attacking him.  The general manager then brought out a new signing to 205 Live to beat up Enzo and everyone was pumped and it turned out to be Kalisto, and everyone was confused. Imagine if that was Itami, and he came out and just killed Enzo with a GTS, that would have made him.  Anyways, Itami could still be a star, but he probably won’t be in the WWE.

Joe: I really hope you’re right on Itami, and I would say there is significant hope with the PPV (preshow) matches that the guys on 205 Live have had as well as the recent surge from Mustafa Ali on Smackdown.

10. Joe selects Alexa Bliss

Jonah: I was a huge fan of Alexa Bliss at the time of the draft, but I did not she would ever be a wrestling threat on the main roster.  She’s a great promo, but still a very average wrestler and she’s extremely tiny. This new head of the women’s division is probably the best spot for her, but she’s a five time women’s champion.  She’ll be back wrestling again once she’s healthy. Bliss would move up in the redraft, in the top five or right outside it. Great view of potential by Joe here.

Joe: I think top five might be underestimating it. Out of everyone in this draft, Alexa Bliss has had BY FAR the most success on the main roster. Are we sure she isn’t the number one overall pick in a redraft? But yeah, she far exceeded my expectations, and I think it’s safe to say that she has been the best talker in the WWE since the time of our original draft.

Jonah: I wouldn’t take her number one overall in a redraft, though she has been the most successful person on the main roster.  The in ring talent isn’t there, and I’d be worried that she’s not going to be able to rise above Rousey ever again.